In its most basic and simplest form, a folding pocket knife has a handle and a blade pivotally attached to the handle with a shaft. The blade may be pivoted from a closed position in which the sharp, or working portion of the blade is safely stowed in the handle, and an open position in which the working portion of the blade is exposed. Of course there are many, many hundreds of designs of folding knifes and these range from the simplest designs that have relatively few mechanical parts, to exceedingly complicated designs with mechanically complex structures that may include automated or semi-automated opening and closing mechanisms that require various springs and associated parts, locks, safety mechanisms and a myriad of other features.
Likewise, there are many different styles of knifes and tools that have stowable blades other than the standard folding knife with a pivoting blade. To name an example, knives that have blades that extend and retract longitudinally are often called “out the front” knives because the blade extends and retracts out the “front” of the handle. An example of an out the front knife is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,305,769, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application. The mechanisms utilized in the knives described in the '769 patent are quite complex. As another example, Balisong knives, which are also called “butterfly” knives, have two handle portions—a safe handle and a bite handle—both pivotally attached to the tang of a blade. There are numerous styles and variations of Balisong knives, but even in their most fundamental and simple form these knives necessarily include many different parts that cooperate to make the knives functional.
Many knife enthusiasts and designers strive for simplicity in design and structure. Ideally, a simple mechanical design minimizes the number of parts and the interactions between the parts. Nonetheless, even in the simplest form, with any knife that has a folding or retractable blade necessarily requires several parts that must be assembled and work together.
There is an ongoing need therefore for knife and tool designs that minimize the number of parts and therefore achieve the simplest possible mechanism.
The present invention is a knife that has only two parts, a handle and a blade. The blade is movable from a closed position in which the blade is stowed safely in the handle and an open position in which the blade is in a working position. Moreover, despite the knife having only two parts, the knife includes a lock that secures the blade safely in the closed position, and a lock that secures the blade when in the open position. The locking mechanism utilized in the knife described herein is a novel and unique adaptation of the actuating mechanisms described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,675,484 and 6,550,832, both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present application and the disclosures of both of which are incorporated herein by this reference.